Language Learning and Study Abroad: A Critical Reading of Research

256 Pages·2009·2.9 MB·English

by  Celeste Kinginger (auth.)

Language Learning and Study Abroad
Language Learning and
Study Abroad
A Critical Reading of Research
Celeste Kinginger
ThePennsylvaniaStateUniversity
©CelesteKinginger2009
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2009 978-0-230-54924-1
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LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Kinginger,Celeste,1959–
Languagelearningandstudyabroad:acriticalreadingofresearch/
CelesteKinginger.
p. cm.
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
1. Secondlanguageacquisition. 2. Languageandlanguages—
Studyandteaching—Foreignspeakers. 3. Foreignstudy.
4. Interculturalcommunication. I. Title.
P118.2.K532009
418.0071—dc22 2009013641
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09
To Jon and Sam
Contents
ListofTables viii
Acknowledgments ix
1 SituatingLanguageLearninginStudyAbroad 1
2 MeasuringLanguageAcquisition 29
3 DomainsofCommunicativeCompetence 69
4 CommunicativeSettingsforLanguageLearningAbroad 114
5 LanguageSocializationandIdentity 154
6 InterpretingResearchonLanguageLearningin
StudyAbroad 205
Notes 224
References 225
NameIndex 242
SubjectIndex 246
vii
List of Tables
2.1 Assessmentofproficiencydevelopment 42
2.2 Assessmentoffluencydevelopment 50
2.3 Assessmentoflisteningcomprehension 59
2.4 Assessmentofreadingandwriting 62
3.1 Assessmentofgrammaticalcompetence 73
3.2 Researchonspeechacts 84
3.3 Studiesofdiscoursecompetence 92
3.4 Studiesofsociolinguisticcompetence 103
4.1 Researchoncommunicativesettingsforlanguage
learning 116
5.1 Researchonlanguagesocializationandidentity 157
viii
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank my colleagues and students in the Department
of Applied Linguistics, the Department of French and Francophone
Studies, and the Center for Language Acquisition at the Pennsylvania
State University for their support of my research and for many inspir-
ing conversations about language learning. I am indebted to David
Block and to Aneta Pavlenko for their invaluable comments on the
manuscript. My thanks also go to Jill Lake, Priyanka Pathak, and
Melanie Blair at Palgrave/Macmillan for taking on this project and
seeing it to completion with expertise and humane professionalism.
The preparation of this book was partially supported by a grant of
sabbatical leave from the College of Liberal Arts at the Pennsylvania
State University and by a grant from the US Department of Education
(CFDA 84.229, P229A020010) to the Center for Advanced Language
Proficiency Education and Research (CALPER) at the Pennsylvania
State University. However, the contents do not necessarily represent
thepolicyoftheDepartmentofEducationandoneshouldnotassume
endorsementbytheFederalGovernment.
ix
1
Situating Language Learning in
Study Abroad
Preamble
In his 1986 autobiographical novel L’étudiant étranger (The Foreign
Student),theFrenchjournalistandcineastePhilippeLabrorecreatesand
embellisheshiscollegestudyabroadexperience.Duringthemid-1950s
thenovel’s18-year-oldprotagonistleavesFranceforayeartobecomean
exchangestudentintheUnitedStates.Hisdestinationisaruralcollege
for‘gentlemen’locatedincentralVirginiawheretheWhitepopulation
clingsbothtoantebellumcustomsofdiscreetproprietyandtoitslegacy
of racial prejudice and segregation. Alternately terrified and thrilled to
thecore,theyoungmanisplungedintoanalternativeuniversewhere
everythingseemsnewtohim,fromlanguage,tomodesofsocialorgani-
zation,tocolorsofthenaturallandscape.Eagertoblendin,hedecides
that the best way to learn will be to participate as actively as possible
whilepretendingtohaveunderstoodnotonlywords,butalsogestures,
clothing, grooming, flavors, and quotidian pursuits. He shortly discov-
ers that the meanings of linguistic signs are richly intertwined with
socialconvention,sensualexperience,andimplicitideologiesofgender
andrace.
He gradually discovers, for example, that the word date, as a verb,
corresponds to an elaborate, carefully scripted ritual involving drive-in
movies andfraternityparties, accessible onlyto those whoown or can
borrow a car. In learning to use this word, Labro’s autobiographical ‘I’
profits by a legitimate place in the local world of dating, as well as the
desireforthisparticipation.Hediscoversnotonlytheword’sgrammati-
calfunctionsbutalsosomescriptsforthecorrespondingactivityandthe
implicationsofvariationfromthosescripts,includingtheconsequences
of rule violation, and script variants like blind date and steady date.
1
2 LanguageLearningandStudyAbroad
Understanding the ritual itself is not enough, however: he must also
graspsuchsubtletiesastheparadoxof1950s’moralcodesaccordingto
which one’s date (the noun) should be a good girl: maximally enticing
but virtuously abstemious, tantalizing but inaccessible. Over time, the
meaningofsuchawordmightdevelopmulti-sensorylevels,linkednot
onlytoknowledgeofetiquetteandproperdressbutalsototheflavorof
certainfoods,suchaspopcorn,hamburgers,orPabstBlueRibbonbeer,
and to a broad array of ‘prior texts’ (Becker 1988), including the por-
trayalofdatingandromanceinthepopmusicofthe1950s(e.g.,Marty
Robbins’1957‘AWhiteSportCoatandaPinkCarnation’orDannyand
the Juniors’ 1955 ‘At the Hop’). In the end, the word might assume a
richemotionalresonanceassociatedwithspecificeventsintheauthor’s
memory(Kramsch2006a).
Along the way, the foreign student often violates codes whose very
existence he does not suspect. At first, these infractions are relatively
minor, as when he is brought before a peer disciplinary council (The
Assimilation Committee), suspected of failing to smile with adequate
sinceritywhengreetingstrangersoncampus.Later,hischoicesleadhim
far from his initial innocence, and toward shocking realizations of the
economicandracialinequitiescharacterizingtheAmericansouthprior
tothecivilrightsmovement.
AgenerationafterLabro,asabookish19-year-oldcollegestudentborn
incentralVirginia,IwenttoFrance,joiningthemanyAmericanpartic-
ipantsinthethentraditionalJuniorYearAbroad.Iwouldleavebehind
theleafyoasisofAntiochCollege,havingcultivatedasinceresmileand
an appropriately radical political outlook, and would abandon routine
walkingmeditationsonexistentialisminthecompanyofmyprofessors.
Having dutifully chanted the dialogues in the first-year textbook, put
onplaysmoreridiculousthansublimeinhighschoolFrenchclass,then
creptone-by-onethroughthepagesofCamus’L’Etranger,leaningheav-
ilyonmybilingualdictionary,myplanwastolearnFrench.Apartfrom
knowingthatthiseffortwouldinvolvereadingmorebooksandtalking,
Ihadpreciousfewideasabouthowthisplanwouldwork.Ididn’tknow
atthetimethatlearninganotherlanguagewouldinvolvelearninghow
toliveotherwise:howtodress,howtoeat,walk,gesture,andnavigate
withininstitutions.
Like Labro, I entered the scenes of my first year in France with only
vague awareness of my own preconceptions, and I look back on that
year as a time not only of considerable malaise but also of contin-
ual discovery. Madame Lunes, proprietress of the small family farm
where I satisfied Antioch’s cooperative work assignment, taught me to